Mac Hard Drive problems

So recently My Macbooks hard drive crashed so I was forced to buy a new one but I don't have an OS disk and I don't think the laptop came with one. Am I just screwed or would mac support give me another cd of the same version my compture came with? It's obviously a mac and Mac people were the ones to diagnose my problem. Any answers?

Hi and welcome...
I was forced to buy a new one but I don't have an OS disk and I don't think the laptop came with one
All new Macs come with install discs excluding the new MacBook Air.
You can get replacement System Install & Restore CD/DVDs from Apple's Customer Support - in the US, (800) 767-2775 - for a nominal S&H fee. You'll need to have the model and/or serial number of your Mac available.
Carolyn

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I am not much of a computer technician. I bought a time capsule thinking I could use this for an external hard drive and keep my MAC hard drive free. Was I mistaken? One I back everthing up on the TC, can I delete everything off of my MAC?

I am not much of a computer technician. I bought a time capsule thinking I could use this for an external hard drive and keep my MAC hard drive free. Was I mistaken? Once I back everything up on the TC, can I delete everything off of my MAC and then use my TC as my hard drive??

Once I back everything up on the TC, can I delete everything off of my MAC and then use my TC as my hard drive??
TC was designed to backup your Mac. The TC literature is pretty clear about this:
If your Mac's hard drive has a problem....it will sooner or later....you can use your backup on the TC to rebuild your Mac.
But.....if you move all of your data to the TC from your Mac....you only have one version of that data now, and it is on the TC.
Have you thought about what will happen when....not if....the TC has a problem? Since the only version of your important data was on the TC, and the TC has failed......you lose all of your data.....because you have no backup.
A much better plan would be to add a USB or FireWire hard drive and connect it directly to your Mac. Move the data on your Mac over to the hard drive.
Then, the TC will backup both your Mac and the hard drive. So, you have original data on on one drive and backups on another drive.
That would be a minimum backup plan. Most of us have more than one set of backups.

Finder & Dock do not work - Mac Hard Drive does not appear on Desktop

Until yesterday, my powerbook was working properly.
This morning, I wanted to use it and I had the following problems after login.
1/ My Mac Hard drive does not appear on my dekstop
2/ My dock appears but no icon works when I click on them. So, I can't open finder. I have no response.
3/ Furthermore, my top bar (with clock, login name, Airport icon...) appears but it is frozed.
I try several solutions as :
- rebooting in safe mode,
- rebooting, with in the same time, hold different keys (option, apple, p & R)...
As of today, no solution works.
Thanks for your help.

A.CHAMP wrote:
Nota: if i used my daugther login (she is not admin), I have the same issues.
Ok, that's good enough. You may be able to repair this with the 10.5.8 Combo Update This is a fuller install, as opposed to an incremental "delta" update so it should overwrite any files that are damaged or missing. It does not matter if you have applied it before.
Remember to Verify Disk before update and repair permissions after update from /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.
EDIT:
I have around 5 Go space left on my Mac
Also, your getting very low on disk space. Try to copy some of the data off to other media. *Do it before you try applying the combo, you'll need the space.*
-mj
Message was edited by: macjack
Message was edited by: macjack

Restoring iTunes files after hard drive problems

HI.
I recently had hard drive problems and since the recovery of the data I have lost all my files from iTunes. The sogs I have put on to the Mac via CD's are all still there but all the iTunes downloads have disapeared. This is probably because I didn't back up!
I also have numerous duplications, which I eventually removed from itunes but I know the majority of which will return if I drag my music folder across.
This will be a hige taks again to remove the duplications.
I want to use this unfortunate incident to my advantage though and now have a clear out of my unwanted files and keep my iTunes nicely organised.
I also lost my playlists, which is a major pain.
By looking at the support threads it seems that I can use my ipod to put my library back as it should be. Will this also replace my downloaded songs? My other issue is that some of my iTunes downloads, downloaded with some problems, which are obviously on my ipod. How do I go about getting the songs repaired?
Thanks for any help.

[Zevoneer's detailed instructions on getting music off an iPod|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9053179#9053179]
[Wired's How To: Get Your Music Off of Your iPod|http://howto.wired.com/wiki/GetYour_Music_Off_of_YouriPod]
[http://www.metaphoriclabs.com/articles/5-ways-to-copy-music-off-your-ipod-windo ws-mac-os-x>
I imagine if the files exist on the ipod you can get them transferred over. if they don't exist, they are gone.
As for the corrupt files you would need to provide more information on the issues.

MacBook Hard Drive Problems?

I've used this MacBook for a few years without any issues. It has always had very snappy response and very few problems. Earlier this week, I noticed that it takes about 4 minutes to boot up now as opposed to the 30 seconds it used to take just a week ago. Once running, Safari also tends to be unresponsive at times and slow to load. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that during boot up, I can HEAR the hard drive give off some "clicks" and faint "beeps" (for lack of a more technical description). In my experience with Windows machines, this is often a sign of hard drive problems.
With Vista, I can run a CHKDSK and fix the drive by taking the bad sectors out of the mix. I am trying to figure out how to best diagnose and repair my drive on this Mac. I tried booting from the Snow Leopard DVD and running Disk Utility/First Aid to find the problem, but this utility reports that everything is fine and dandy. I am not sure I agree.
Can someone tell me of a more powerful tool for the Mac that will fully diagnose any hardware or software problems on this machine so I can get it back to tip top performance. Is there a diagnostic utility provided by Apple? Other utilities built in to Snow Leopard? Third party applications?
As I have never had problems with a Mac before, I am in uncharted waters with regard to diagnostics so if anyone can help, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks!

domtrump wrote:
In addition to OSX (Leopard) I have two (2) "MacBook Mac OSX Install" discs. Does anyone know which one is bootable and contains the AHT utility?
You have to determine what version of Leopard shipped with your Mac. It might say on the disk. If not, put in the leopard disk and see which version it is. As stated in the link I gave you.........
For Intel-based Apple computers shipping with Mac OS X v10.5.4 or earlier, Apple Hardware Test is located on the Mac OS X Install Disc 1 and should be included with your computer.
For Intel-based Apple computers shipping with Mac OS X v10.5.5 or later, Apple Hardware Test is located on the Applications Install Disc 2 and should be included with your computer.
Here's another AHT faq.
DALE

OS 10.6.8 OS and I-mac Hard drive accessed almost constantly and ties up software trying to run including displayany solution?

OS 10.6.8 OS and I-mac Hard drive accessed almost constantly and ties up software trying to run including display. Any solution? My other I-mac no problem.

10.8.6? I think you mean 10.6.8.

After renaming my MAC hard drive, Acrobat, Illustrator and Bridge fail to launch. Acrobat returns the error message "An internal error occurred". I've checked this out and it seems related to user permissions. The version is Acrobat X. My machine has mult

After renaming my MAC hard drive, Acrobat, Illustrator and Bridge fail to launch. Acrobat returns the error message "An internal error occurred". I've checked this out and it seems related to user permissions. The version is Acrobat X. My machine has multiple user accounts. Any help would be appreciated. I renamed the drive to its original name but to no effect. RR

I resolved the issue.
The problem is indeed a permissions issue with the Adobe Application Support folder.
First, in MAC OS Lion the ~/Library/ folder is hidden by default. You must unhide it in order to proceed. (if it is already visible in your ~/User/ folder, proceed to Step 4.)
Next launch the Terminal application.
At the command line, paste the following command line: chflags nohidden ~/Library/
Go to /Users/youruserid/Library/Application Support/Adobe
Get info on the ~/Adobe folder and reset your permissions to read/write and apply to all enclosed folders
Problem solved. RR

MBP Hard Drive Problem (Again)

My MBP is going back to the Geniuses for a HD problem for the 3rd time tomorrow, since I bought it in July. I am confused about exactly what is happening, and I would like any advice anyone might have about salvaging any of my data.
(The first two times, I brought it in because the HD died. The first time, they told me they had replaced the HD, though they hadn't. They ran diagnostics, decided it did not need to be replaced after erasing my data, and then gave it back to me. I brought it back the next day [t died that night as I was reinstalling] and they replaced the HD in about a day.)
Everything got really slow this weekend and I had "index" and "database" problems in my mail.app (twice), and my iTunes (twice). Now, the replacement HD has disappeared when I tried to reinstall the system software/repair the disk in disk utility.
This is the chronology:
I have had this hard drive for 3 weeks, installed at the local apple store to replace my factory-installed dead hard drive.
On Friday, my mail app stopped working. After diagnosing the error message (thanks to this forum), I learned that the index file was corrupted, so I reinstalled the index.
On Saturday, my iTunes said it couldn't read my iPod, so I restored my iPod, erasing all of my data (music, calendars, contacts, important documents). I continued to get the same error message.
Today, I restored it again, but I still couldn't get iTunes to write more than 2 gb of information (of the 20 gb of data). At that point, I decided I would have to send my iPod in for repairs and stopped trying.
8 hours later, I got an error message that said the iTunes index was corrupted. I started to put the music back in to iTunes, but the MBP kept kept freezing.
I restarted the machine and received the blinking questionmark. I put in my system installation disks to run disk utility and, if need be, reinstall my system software.
This is where it gets interesting:
Disk Utility can see the topline Disk Description and the SMART status is verified. But the name of the disk itself is wrong and the mount point says it is unmounted. The capacity is correct, but under everything from owners enabled to number of files and space available, there is just a dash.
Unlike my previous hard drive problem, there is no clunking, and the hard drive appears to be working. Disk Utility found the following: Invalid B-tree node size. The volume needs to be repaired. Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit. 1 HFS volume checked: volume needs repair. And that's it.
My questions are:
1. What is happening to my hard drive?
2. Is it dead or is there any way to fix it?
3. Is there any way to salvage my data? (Because of my iPod failure, I lost my calendars, contacts, important data from my last big back up 3 weeks ago, not to mention my carefully curated music collection. I have my documents backed up to gmail, but not my notes, which were on my iPod.)
4. Does it sound like an internal hardware problem or is it really just two bum hard drives (from two different manufacturers) in a row?
MacBook Pro 2.16 ghz Intel Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.8)

In case anyone receives a series of index problems which escalate into apparent hard drive failure and blinking question mark of doom . . .
the Geniuses fixed the computer by doing a complete wipe of my hard drive.
They said that the directory error may have existed from before my last hard drive was installed, but I am not certain how such a thing could exist.
Because it was a directory error, I lost all of my data on the hard drive, but I was able to take the machine home with me within an hour. Since the erase and reinstallation, my computer is running much, much faster, and seemingly cooler, but that may just be my relief at having a working machine back.

HT203322 Cannot Install Mac OSX Snow Leopard on MacBook 10.5.8 because Mac Hard Drive has Time Machine on It?

I have an old MacBook (2006?) with OS 10.5.8 that I would like to upgrade to Mac OS X Snow Leopard, which I have on DVD. When asked to select what disk I would like to install the upgrade to, my only option is the Mac Hard Drive icon with a big yellow triangle/exclamation point saying I cannot install there because I am running Time Machine on that disk.
I have run searches using "Find" for any vestige of Time Machine left on my computer. I have deleted the icon from my dock. I have tried to run disk utility to delete just the Time Machine but can't target just that. I have rebooted after each of these steps. Nothing changes.
It is Kafka-esque because I need to upgrade my OS so that I can upgrade my browser so I can read the question section of apple.com related to upgrading to Snow Leopard.
Thanks for any help you can give.

Thanks, seventy one. I do have everything backed up everything to an external hard drive, plus the most important stuff also on Dropbox. Given the age of this laptop, and given that I've been the sole owner and almost the sole user, I'm mystified as to why/how Time Machine is on my internal hard drive. I agree with you that it would defeat its purpose to back up files to the computer they're already on! It reminds me of the time a friend of mine put a bucket under his sink because there was a big leak in the pipe that was splashing into the cupboard. When the bucket was full, he took it out from under the sink and poured it down the sink to empty it. Ooops. Using Time Machine to back up files on the same computer it's installed on feels the same to me.
It's interesting because I've found versions of my question posted by many other users, but I can't find an adequate response. Mostly, there are responses that don't directly address the problem, which in turn are rated by the petitioners as 50% or so helpful.
I'm not sure what I'll do beyond searching a little more on the web and sleeping on it. In all seriousness, though, thank you for your help and suggestions. These Apple Help Boards are amazing, in large part owing to people like you who respond to strange plaints like my own.

Hard drive problem...... Please Help

Hard drive problems
I am sure it is due to my error or mistake but I received a new Maxtor III touch as a replacement for my failed drive yesterday after connecting it I went to Maxtor one touch manager software that came with it and the drive did not appear in the window so then I opened disk utilities and copied my notebook hard drive over to the Maxtor ran permissions on each drive and then closed down my system ! today when I opened my Powerbook with the Maxtor on it gave me the grey screen 2x so I disconnected the Maxtor ran permissions again and everything was fine until i power up the Maxtor and Grey screen again! Help How do I fix this?????

Maxtor one touch III firewire 800 its connected to my Titanium G$ Powerbook I am beginning to think its just another drive failure

If you delete a large file from the mac hard drive does it also remove it from time machine on external hard drive

if you delete a large file from the mac hard drive does it also delete it from time machine on the external hard drive ?

As the others say, no, the backup copy won't be deleted immediately, but it will eventually.
If you want to delete all backups of a selected item, such as for space or security reasons, see #12 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

How Do You "Move" Items/Applications from the Mac Hard Drive?

Hi,
As the subject line suggests I need to "move" things from my regular Mac Hard Drive to the additional Hard Drive I installed. My normal (forgive my lack of technical talk) hard drive is almost full. I would like to move things like iTunes, iPhoto etc to my new hard drive (1TB) so that I can free up space on my current more regularly used hard drive. Is there an easy way to do this?
Ali

There's various approaches you can take. Personally I would try to leave applications and the system on the main drive and just move data files to another drive. Some applications really want to be run from the main drive and will become cranky if you put them elsewhere because things aren't where they expect them to be.
Moving files is often just a matter of dragging them to the new place. Note that if this new place is another drive the files get copied and you will have to delete the originals from the original drive once you are done copying.
Applications can have a complex structure with bits and pieces of files all over the place, some may be invisible. While these can be copied, as I said before it is often best to leave them on the main drive.
Just for your information, you posted your software question in the Apple.com > Support > Discussions > Power Mac G5 > Power Mac G5 (tower) hardware questions area. Your computer information says you are running a Mac Pro and Snow Leopard (which won't run on a G5). It doesn't really matter in this case but if you have a platform specific question in future, for fastest response you might want to make sure it gets into the correct forum.

I have an alias of one of my external hard drives in my trash. When I click on "show original" all my external H D 's and my Mac hard drive show up. How do I delete this icon from the trash without loosing all my files?

I have an alias of one of my external hard drives in my trash. When I tried to delete it, it showed that I was deleting 80,000 files and counting. I stopped the delete process and when I clicked on "show original" all my external H.D.'s and my Mac hard drive show up. How do I delete this alias from the trash without loosing all my files? When I tried to drag it back to the desk top, it just made a duplicate and remained in the trash. When I turned off the external H.D., the trash was then empty. Tried rebooting the computer and then turning the external hard drive back on and the alias shows up in the trash again. Much help appreciated.
Rich

In Finder's Menu, select Go menu>Go to Folder, and go to "/volumes". (no quotes)
Volumes is where an alias to your hard drive ("/" at boot) is placed at startup, and where all the "mount points" for auxiliary drives are created for you to access them. This folder is normally hidden from view.
Drives with an extra 1 on the end have a side-effect of mounting a drive with the same name as the system already think exists. Try trashing the duplicates with a 1 or 2 if there are no real files in them, and reboot.
If it does contain data...
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2474

How can I have my contacts on the cloud and my Mac hard drive?

How can I have my contacts both on the cloud and my Mac hard drive?

go to icloud.com

I use an external hard drive for my Lightroom library and I notice that all the images shown on there are DNG. On my MAC hard drive I have images shown as NEF. I desperately need to free up space on my hard drive, can I safely delete these NEFs?

I use an external hard drive for my Lightroom library and I notice that all the images shown on there are DNG. On my MAC hard drive I have images shown as NEF. I desperately need to free up space on my hard drive, can I safely delete these NEFs?

dj_paige wrote:
however, I do point out that obtaining an additional hard drive and not throwing anything away seems a preferable solution to me.
heidie22, dj_paige has a very good point there. I would not through away the NEF files; I would archive them to a external drive.
By the way, I am assuming that converting RAW files to DNG is a decision you have made and not an accident.

Mac Hard Drive problems

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